Johnny Depp confirms ‘Transcendence’ and ‘Black Mass’ as his next films

February 28, 2013 - By Andrew Flynn

Deadline have confirmed that Johnny Depp will star in Transcendence and Black Mass, which means the actor will have an extremely busy 2013 as principle photography is scheduled to take place back to back.

Depp’s representatives released this statement:

Johnny Depp is set to star in Transcendence, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Wally Pfister. The film will begin principal photography in April.

The film is being financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove and will be released by Warner Bros. The film will also be produced by Straight Up Films’ Annie Marter, Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen along with David Valdes. Pfister will direct from newcomer Jack Paglen’s screenplay, which was developed with Annie Marter, with the most recent draft by Noah Oppenheim. Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas are serving as executive producers. Straight Up’s Regency Boies will co-produce.

Producers are not revealing the film’s plot.

Following Transcendence, Depp will segue into the crime thriller Black Mass, about notorious Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger, to be directed by Barry Levinson, with Jez Butterworth writing a new draft of the screenplay by Mark Mallouk, based on the New York Times best-seller Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill.

Filming is beginning in early summer of 2013.

Johnny Depp will be seen later this year, starring as Tonto in Disney’s big-budget adaptation of The Lone Ranger. The film is directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and also stars Armie Hammer as the titular hero.